When scientists talk about the cryosphere, they mean the places on Earth where water is in its solid form, frozen into ice or snow. Read more ...

Service Interruption

On Friday, 06 February 2015 from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (USA Mountain Time), we will be performing scheduled maintenance, which may cause temporary disruptions to our Web site, applications, and FTP. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.

Data Updates & Announcements

2006

28 December 2006

MODIS/Terra Version 5 Snow
Products: NSIDC is pleased to announce the release of
Version 5 (V005) reprocessed MODIS/Terra snow products, which contain
several improvements over the previous versions. For example, monthly
snow products are available in a Climate Modeling Grid (CMG) format,
fractional snow cover was added to MOD10_L2 and MOD10A1 products,
browse images are available for all products, and all products use
HDF compression making the file size much smaller.

27 December 2006

ICESat/GLAS: Release-28
data for the Laser 3B time period (17 February to 24 March 2005) are
available for the following products: GLA01 - GLA09 and GLA12 - GLA15.
This release provides numerous enhancements, such as improved corrections
for saturation effects, improved flags to aid users in data selection,
and better descriptions of the altimetry products.

MODIS/Terra Version 5 Sea
Ice Products: NSIDC is pleased to announce the release
of Version 5 (V005) reprocessed MODIS/Terra sea ice products, which
contain several improvements over the previous versions. For example,
Sea Ice by Ice Surface Temperature (IST) and combined sea ice fields
were removed, browse images are now available, and all V005 products
use HDF compression making the file size much smaller.

ICESat/GLAS: Release-28
data for the Laser 2B time period (17 February to 21 March 2004) are
available for all 15 GLAS products (GLA10 and GLA11 coverage to 4 March
2004). This release provides numerous enhancements, such as improved
corrections for saturation effects, improved flags to aid users in data
selection, and better descriptions of the altimetry products.

8 November 2006

National Ice Center Sea Ice Charts
and Climatologies in Gridded Format: The U.S. National
Ice Center (NIC) is an interagency NOAA, Navy, and Coast Guard operational
sea ice analysis and forecasting center. Since 1972, NIC has produced
weekly or biweekly Arctic and Antarctic sea ice charts. These analyses
are produced using available in situ, remotely sensed, and model
data sources. They are generated primarily for mission planning and
safety of navigation. Overall, the record of sea ice concentration
from the NIC series is believed to be more accurate than that from
passive microwave sensors, especially from the mid-1990s on. This
data set is an Arctic sea ice concentration climatology derived from
the chart series. The climatology consists of median, maximum, minimum,
first quartile, and 3rd quartile concentrations as well as frequency
of occurrence of ice at any concentration for 33 year, 10 year, and
5 year periods.

Resource Allocation and Allometry
of Plant Growth at Selected Sites in the Arctic: 2003-2005 Growing
Seasons: This ARCSS data set consists of measurements
from Arctic field sites during the summer months from 5 July 2003
to 5 August 2005 as part of the Land-Atmosphere-Ice Interactions
(LAII) International Tundra Experiment (ITEX). Investigators designed
this research, which compares an extensive range of vegetation types
that exists in widely-separated sites, to help identify the relative
vulnerability of different vegetation types, plant functional types,
and species to climate change and other forms of disturbances.

31 October 2006

Subglacial Topography: Airborne
Geophysical Survey of the Amundsen Sea Embayment, Antarctica: This
AGDC data set includes 5 km gridded data from the Airborne Geophysical
Survey of the Amundsen Sea Embayment, Antarctica (AGASEA) conducted
during the 2004-2005 austral summer. Investigators derived maps of
the ice sheet surface and subglacial topography, which covers the
entire catchments of both the Thwaites Glacier and the Pine Islands
Glacier, from airborne survey systems mounted on a Twin Otter aircraft.

30 October 2006

ICESat/GLAS: Release-28
data for the Laser 3D time period (21 October 2005 to 24 November 2005)
are available for the following products: GLA01 - GLA09 and GLA12 - GLA15.
This release provides numerous enhancements, such as improved corrections
for saturation effects, improved flags to aid users in data selection,
and better descriptions of the altimetry products.

ICESat/GLAS: Release-28
data for the Laser 3E time period (22 February 2006 to 27 March 2006)
are available for the following products: GLA01 - GLA09 and GLA12 - GLA15.
This release provides numerous enhancements, such as improved corrections
for saturation effects, improved flags to aid users in data selection,
and better descriptions of the altimetry products. See ICESat/GLAS
Data Releases for more information, including details about a change
in file names with this release.

ICESat/GLAS:Release-26
data for the Laser 2A time period (25 September to 18 November 2003)
are available for the following products: GLA01 - GLA15. See ICESat/GLAS
Data Releases for more information.

4 May 2006

ICESat/GLAS:Release-26
data for the Laser 2B time period (17 February to 21 March 2004) are
available for the following products: GLA01 - GLA015. See ICESat/GLAS
Data Releases for more information.

10 March 2006

Repeat
Photography of Glaciers: This collection matches photos
of glaciers taken as early as the 1890s with recent photos taken
at the same physical location. The photos tell a captivating visual
story of the changes glaciers have experienced through time.

17 March 2006

ICESat/GLAS: Release-26
data are available for the following products: GLA01 - GLA09 and GLA12
- GLA015. This release covers the Laser 3D time period (21 October to
24 November 2005). Significant changes to the altimetry products include
a range correction for saturation and several changes to the alternate
fit waveforms. Several new MET parameters were added to the atmospheric
products. See ICESat/GLAS
Data Releases for more information.

14 February 2006

Northern Hemisphere Seasonal and
Intermittent Frozen Ground Areas 1901-2000: This FGDC
data set contains monthly values of the total exposed land area of
seasonally frozen ground and annual values for intermittently frozen
ground in the Northern Hemisphere. Seasonally frozen ground is defined
as the near-surface soil that experiences freeze for more than 15
days per year, while intermittently frozen ground experiences fewer
than 15 days of freeze per year.

Compilation of Antarctic Radar
Data, Siple Coast, 2000-2002: This AGDC data set contains
ground-based, ice-penetrating radar profiles across satellite-detected
lineations and terrains that were taken in the lower reaches of Ross
Ice Stream C, also known as the Kamb Ice Stream (KIS); on Roosevelt
Island; on the Siple Dome; and on the Shabtaie Ice Ridge.

Arctic EASE-Grid Freeze and Thaw
Depths, 1901 - 2002: This FGDC data set contains mean,
median, minimum and maximum freeze and thaw depths for each year
from 1901 to 2002 on the 25 km EASE-Grid for areas north of 50°.
Freeze and thaw depths are estimated using a variant of the Stefan
solution that uses an edaphic factor and freezing or thawing indices
as inputs.